Spring is officially on its way, with the clocks going forward this weekend. With (hopefully) warmer weather just around the corner, you’d be forgiven if energy tariffs were the last thing on your mind.

But this morning, big six member SSE announced that it will be freezing its prices until 2016 – meaning no unexpected price rises this year or next for its customers.

The news will inevitably mean that many people will now consider switching in preparation for next winter.

However, households looking to change their energy supplier should treat the announcement with a pinch of salt. Jeremy Cryer, energy expert at Gocompare.com, says: “Many of SSE’s customers will already be paying more than they had been previously as SSE was the first big six supplier to increase its prices in October last year, hiking costs by 8.2%, or the equivalent of 4.5% now that the government’s levy cuts have been implemented.

“It’s also important that existing or would-be SSE customers aren’t seduced by these price freeze announcements – if costs are held when they’re already expensive, it just means they will remain expensive. Tariffs are available at the moment which would allow people to fix their gas and electricity costs well into 2016, 2017 and even 2018, so the main thing is to shop around for the best tariff for you and switch if necessary.

However, Cryer believes that we may well see other energy companies following SSE’s example. “Once one energy supplier announces a price hike, the others follow with grim inevitability. We hope they will follow SSE's lead again, but this time for the benefit of the millions of households for whom energy costs are becoming an increasing concern.”